The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-06-07
FUTURE OF THE NEGRO.
HIS ULTIMATE DISAPPEARANCE
FROM THIS COUNTRY.

FROM THIS COUNTRY.
Dr. e. R. Corson's Lecture Before the
Georgia Historical Society on the
Colored Race in the United States
Viewed From An Ethnic and Medical
Standpoint
"The Future of the Colored Race in the
United States from an Ethnic and Medical
Standpoint" was the subject Of DR.. E. h.
Corsons lecture before the Georgia Histori-
cal Society last night. DR.. Corson argued
that the African race, an inferior race,
transported by force from its natural hahi-
tat to a distant country and thrown by
emancipation, after a period Of slavery,
into the struggle for existence with SUI
perior race, can never gain an ascendancy,
but must in time die out or become so
merged into the dominant race as to
finally lose its identity; that already there
are evident signs that the physique of the
| race is degencrating, as shown by the rate
of mortality as compared to the white race,
and by the appearance of certain pathologlc-
al conditions, which predict an even higher
rate of mortality in the near future.
FALSE ARGUMENTS REFUTED.
with the refutation of the argument based
upon the census returns an argument used
by certain Northern writers to prove that
the cOlored race is rapidly
| increasing to eventually outnumber the
whites, with results fatal to the prosperity
of the country, and especially the South
He quoted at some length from MIR. Henry
| Gannett, who has shown conclusively that a
careful revision of the census shows that
the blacks are not increasing over the
whites, but quite the contrary. He main
tanned that the only solution of the problem
is through the teachings of ethnology and
biology, and the experiences of those who
have studied the physical status Of the race.
PHYSICAL DEGENERACY.
To show the physical degeneracy Of the
race DR.. Corson gave the mortuary statistics
of the principal Southern cities, which show
that the colored mortality about doubles
that of the white and that the mortality
from consumption among the colored people
more than doubles that of the whites from
this disease. Further that the negro is fall
ing a victim tomalarial and miaslnatic dis
eeses from which he was formerly exempt
He showed that during slavery the ply
Sique OF the race was good, and in many IN
stances it was better than that of white
people, but that since emancipation the ne
gro has been thrown directly into the st-ug-
gle for existence against the superior race,
and in this struggle he must so to
| the wall with great loss of life
MIsCEGENATIoN.
He spoke at some length of the factor of
miscegenation, which many Northern
writers have overlooked in their arguments
! They contend that the division line between
! the races must become more and more dis
tinct. Miscegenation shows the fusion going
on, in spite Of its illegality, which rem
a.
large mixed element which becomes more
and more allied to the white race in direct
| proportion TO the amount OF the white blood
| in the new product.
! A deterioration in physique may be looked
! upon as the natural result of the many in
| fluences at work arising from the transpOr-
| tation of the race to a foreign soil, to be
thrown in the struggle for existence against
a superior race, a struggle which car have
NJ ultimate issue but defeat, and by defeat
he meant an inability to maintain the dis
tinctive characteristics of the race.
WHAT THE CHANGES WILL BE.
| The struggle viii be q slow process of
| fusion by which the weak and unstable ele-
ments will disappear, while that which has
any permanently viii become so blended
with the dominant race as to lose its indi-
viduality. OF the stable and unstable the
latter is by far the greater. It's instability
/ liiu1 De h4cdouI ~ ny UilS hSs5Sli-
eracy. Even to-day to call the colored race
the African race is something of mis-
homer, because it has undergone many
notifications. A change in language, il
soil, in climate; change of surroundings
and associations are potent influences to
eventually destroy the original racial traits
A STRIKING SMILE.
In conclusion. Dr. Corson said: ''The
great forces are at work, and their ultimate
issue, which have attempted to indicate,
may be roughly portrayed and epitomized
by simile. Imagine crystal lake fed by
many streams from all points of the com
| pass, bringing waters as varied as the re
! gions through which they flow Suddenly,
from the southwark gushes in a muddy
stream, which empties into the lake to soon
exhaust itself. At first, for some dis
tance out on its surface, we can
see a distinct line of demarcation
between the clear and the muddy. Gradu-
ally, by a process of diffusion and precipita-
ton, this division line becomes less and less
distinct, the muddy stream shading off into
the clear until finally the lake is left in its
original clearness; and our eyes, wandering
over its surface. fail to detect any cloudi-
ness in its clear and translucent depths"